Psalm 63:1-11, Your love is better than life

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.

1 O God, you are my God, I seek you,

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

4 So I will bless you as long as I live;

I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,

and my mouth praises you with joyful lips

6 when I think of you on my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

8 My soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me. 

The heading for this Psalm says that it was written by David when in the wilderness.   I guess he was thirsty.  He must have been hot and tired wandering in some dry dusty place with no water to be found, and he was thirsty.  Thirst tends to concentrate the mind.  The thirstier one is the more you focus on getting something to drink to quell the thirst.

In that moment of physical thirst the author is able to listen to a deeper place in himself and a deeper thirst is felt.  It is a thirst for God.  Have you ever been thirsty for God?  Some might say that all of our cravings, graspings and clingings are really rooted in that primary thirst which only God can fill.

However, the thirst for God is one that never truly seems to be filled.  Oddly it seems to me like God is both the living waters that fill the thirst and the thirst itself.  I know that sounds strange, but haven’t you found it to be true?  God is the only one who can truly satisfy our deepest longings and yet God is also in the emptiness that are these very longings.  Maybe it has to do with letting go or trusting, but the more we give into the thirst the more we come to know fulfillment in God.

What are you thirsty for?  Really?  Do you see what I mean that God is both the water and the thirst?

What do you think?

Thanks to everyone who commented on last week’s blog on the Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church Facebook page.